North Carolina · Nonprofit
NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER
NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER (North Carolina) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,334,307 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($1,196,330). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $9.6M
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $3.3M
- Net assets
- $96M
What National Humanities Center does
Mission
The National Humanities Center is the world's only independent institute dedicated exclusively to advanced study in all areas of the humanities. Through its residential fellowship program, the center provides scholars with the resources necessary to generate new knowledge and to further understand all forms of cultural expression, social interaction, and human thought. Through its education programs, the center strengthens teaching on the collegiate and pre-collegiate levels. Model programs developed at the center provide teachers and faculty with new materials and instructional strategies to make them more effective in the classroom and rekindle their enthusiasm for the subjects they teach. Through public engagement, in the form of community lectures, panel discussions, symposia, and a rich multi-media library, the center promotes understanding of the humanities and advocates for their foundational role in a democratic society.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Scholarly programs - each year, the center selects 35 to 40 fellows (mid-career, senior, and promising early-career scholars) from hundreds of applicants worldwide. The program provides these scholars with time, funding (stipends & travel support), resources (library) and a collaborative environment to pursue advanced research and writing in the humanities. Scholars work primarily on individual research projects while participating in seminars, discussions, and intellectual exchange with other fellows. Since its founding in 1978, the program has resulted in thousands of books, articles, and other scholarly publications.
$3,659,140 spentof which $1,595,331 as grants$326,743 earned by the program65% of program spendingEducation the education program is designed to strengthen humanities teaching and learning by connecting scholarly research with classroom practice. The program provides professional development, teaching resources, and collaborative learning opportunities for educators at the k12 and collegiate levels. Through webinars, online courses, institutes, and digital resources, the center helps teachers deepen their subject knowledge and adopt innovative instructional strategies. These programs often feature leading humanities scholars and encourage educators to engage directly with new research and primary sources.
$782,445 spentof which $172,258 as grants$95,100 earned by the program14% of program spendingPublic engagement - the public engagement program connects humanities scholarship with broader public audiences. Its goal is to increase public understanding and appreciation of the humanities by sharing the work and ideas of leading scholars beyond the academic community. The program accomplishes this through public lectures, panel discussions, conferences, podcasts, digital media, and community events, as well as initiatives such as humanities moments and the being human festival. These activities invite audiences to explore important cultural, historical, and social issues through a humanities lens and to engage directly with scholars and their research.
$1,162,853 spentof which $2,905 as grants$2,069 earned by the program21% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,604,438.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $78M to $96M (+23%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 10% · 2021 11% · 2022 0% · 2023 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
18% of NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $277k → $404k.
10 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $140k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest American Council of Learned Societies). These are real filings, and they are not money NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER raised.
From the IRS filings of NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
26% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 95% · 2019 37% · 2020 57% · 2021 47% · 2022 59% · 2023 63% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
45% of NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 87% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER draws 85% of its grant income from funders outside North Carolina, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $402k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.7M on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$1.7M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
25%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER?
- NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER (North Carolina) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,334,307 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($1,196,330). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $3,334,307 in grants to NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER?
- THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,196,330 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 30 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing